


If I Never See You Again, It'll Be Too Soon

by Draycarla



Series: Galra Week/ween 2020 [7]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Childhood Friends, F/F, Flashbacks, Friends to Lovers, Keith and Krolia are mentioned in passing, Lovers To Enemies, Past Relationship(s), The comforts in the memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:14:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27653264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draycarla/pseuds/Draycarla
Summary: As Trugg and Ladnok fight for the chance to own Ranveig's weapon, they recall a lost friendship and love held so long ago between them. Sometimes, there's nothing left to salvage, and your old friend and lover can become your deadliest enemy.
Relationships: Ladnok/Trugg (Voltron)
Series: Galra Week/ween 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016622
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	If I Never See You Again, It'll Be Too Soon

**Author's Note:**

> Day 6 is Childhood Friends, but a sad one. It does follow canon in what happens to them, but obviously the previous stuff is all for fic hah.
> 
> I really like Trugg/Ladnok as a ship. I think they're both pretty cool, and I started shipping them thanks to the Kral Zera episode and this one too. Like all the galra, they lasted not long at all.
> 
> I know this will barely appeal to anyone, but for those of you who do enjoy the ship/galra in general, please accept!

“ _Ladnok's always one step ahead of you, daughter. You need to stop allowing that. This clan doesn't breed disappointments, but at present,” Trugg's father looks down at her, “your projection in life is looking as such.” Trugg glares at him and shrugs her shoulders._

“ _She came first in the trial because she worked hard for it, and unlike_ you _, she has support.”_

“ _Her parents coddle her. What she needs is discipline.” Her father drags her away by the arm, and from the corner of her eye, Trugg sees Ladnok look over. Those inky pupils of her contract as they flick between her and the retreating back of her father. It's then, Ladnok's expression darkens, and she crosses the cracked ground beneath their feet and grabs Trugg by the wrist._

“ _I won't let you hurt her any more.” It's then Trugg knows she's safe with Ladnok; her friend always had her back._

It was the quintant they both became inseparable.

Trugg stares out over Ladnok's fleet as the remainders of hers hyper-jump in. _Always one step ahead_. Trugg repeats in her mind. For most of their childhoods, careers from grunt, to officer, to lieutenant, up until commander; Ladnok was always _just_ ahead of her. For a long time, Trugg was proud of her friend-turned-mate. That was until they got their Commander postings.

_Ladnok's pupils flick between the holo-pads, and then back at Trugg._

“ _You're really going to take it? After, you know, what we've seen happen to those who work directly for Zarkon? People who have those quintessence injections change, you saw what happened to Sniv. He used to be so relaxed; a little two-faced, but not to the point he was before. Even Advisor Gnov is different now.”_

“ _She was always stern, Laddy. Look,” Trugg points at her mate's briefing, “I'm just as concerned you're working with the witch. What if she decides you need to have your limbs exchanged with prosthetics? What if she...does something to you? You know the reputation of working for Haggar: one wrong move, and you're in her labs. Why not challenge it, and come work as a commander within Zarkon's ranks with me? We'll both be working together again, but now,” Trugg glances between the different briefings, “there's a chance we're going to be apart. A lot.”_

“ _I don't want to work for Zarkon. He's an amazing Emperor but I just...don't you get the vibe sometimes something's just off about him?”_

“ _I mean he's lived for over six thousand deca-phoebs, that isn't natural, but what does it matter when he's done so much for the Empire? The witch has lived just as long. He's fine providing you do your job, and you're amazing at doing yours.” Trugg grins at her mate, who blushes._

“ _So are you. You've pushed yourself harder at every step, and that's pushed me too.” Ladnok leans against her, staring between the pads. “It sounds stupid, but I don't want you to get the quintessence injections. I don't want you to change, and I don't want to see those pretty purple eyes go away. They're other-worldly. I don't know, maybe it's me being selfish, but my gut instinct says it won't be good for you. I won't stop you, Trugg, because by the gods, you have earned this, but just...please?”_

“ _You know I can't let the opportunity slip away. You can't just turn down a job with the Emperor, even if I'm effectively his personal ship's captain. Though you're pretty much Haggar's, so I guess we're both only flying them about.”_

“ _I suppose so,” Ladnok closes both the holo-pads down, “maybe we take a moment to pause on it. I don't want to feel I'm trying to ruin your chances, okay?” While Trugg initially feels that, she can understand her mate's worries. Others had changed, but she wasn't like them. Her will was strong but stubborn; that's what Sendak had told her once when she argued with the guy in an officer's lounge and refused to back down. Ladnok had no reason to be worried about her, but a small part of Trugg feels she could be trying to stop her from advancing._

The conversation was a only a small taste of what would become their downfall.

Trugg only made the situation worse when she took Zarkon's offer after she'd proved her loyalty to him.

“Commander Trugg,” her lieutenant barks up, “Commander Ladnok is trying to hail us.” Trugg glares at the fleet that hangs in space opposite them. Ladnok was always one who wanted to talk, but her problem was, and it came with deca-phoebs of praise that evolved into an insidious need to control things and be 'right', was that she didn't listen when she thought she was right. Trugg narrows her eyes, and pushes a hand through her hair. She'll play along and amuse herself with what her old mate has to say.

“Open the channel.” She orders, just like she used to do when Zarkon was with her. A few ticks later, Trugg's eyes fall upon her old mate. They stare each other out, before Ladnok stands straighter. She wears the same lipstick she always does; the stuff that was always all over her neck.

“I see you survived the Kral Zera.” Ladnok's expression doesn't shift from anything other then that condescending smirk.

“Take your fleet and go. Ranveig's weapon belongs to someone who's not afraid to use it.” Trugg slams her hands down on the terminal. “In your claws, it'll be useless. You're not a proper warrior,” Trugg narrows her eyes, “just someone who pretends it. Haggar made you soft.” Ladnok's smirk falls to something of a thin line.

“Is that supposed to goad me? You think that I'm going to be intimidated away because you smack your terminal like some type of barbarian?”

“Well it wiped the smirk from your face, so I'd say that was a victory.” Trugg retorts.

“Oh, it really isn't.” Ladnok crosses her arms across her chest. “I got here first. By right, what's on that planet below is mine.”

“By _right_?” Trugg laughs. “You think fairness and rights exist now the Empire's no more? What's down there is going to be mine, with or without you moving out of the way.”

“You would _kill_ for this?” Ladnok's face darkens, and she snorts a laugh as she closes her eyes. “Of course you would.” They re-open, and Trugg sees that determination there. “You're not the same woman I used to know. You changed, all because you were desperate to get somewhere. You never could let it go; always had that gods-forsaken chip on your shoulder.”

“Deploy the fighters and ready the weapons. Cut the visual feed.” Trugg snarls out. She furiously issues orders out across her fleet. They will take what weapon Ranveig has, and nothing was going to stop her. Not Sendak, Gnov, or Ladnok.

-

_Ladnok visibly tenses as her mate shoves the servant to the floor. The glasses shatter on impact while the tray clatters across the ground. It's only when Trugg starts to remove the dual-bladed axes from behind her back does she come in to stop her._

“ _W-What're you_ doing _?” Ladnok tightens her hold. “He was asking if I wanted a drink!”_

“ _He was trying to flirt with you. Someone sectors above his station.” Trugg's eyes narrow at her, and it's only by the way her lips curl back and expose her fangs that Ladnok can even gauge Trugg's expressions any more. Since the injections, since her position with Zarkon, Trugg's changed and not for the better. She knew this would happen – she was warned of it and seen the results._

“ _He really wasn't, honestly, Trugg. I didn't feel like that at all-”_

“ _Because you're so damn naïve at times. You need to put your foot down more, Laddy.” Trugg pulls her hand from Ladnok's grasp and goes to move again. Ladnok darts in front of her, pushing her back by the chest plate. “Move. He needs to learn his place.”_

“ _No, he really doesn't!” Ladnok snaps back. “He might be a servant but what you're claiming is fiction. Just put the axe down and walk away-”_

“ _Galra don't walk away. Only cowards do. You should know better – you're a Commander in the great Galra Empire.”_

“ _That might be under Zarkon, but working under Haggar is different – I told you that! There's no point with just aimless destruction. You have to be smart about it, and see reason. Anger just clouds your judgement.” She hears the servant scuttle away, and is about to let out a sigh of relief, when with a grunt and flare of her nostrils, Trugg hurls the axe. It strikes the servant square in the spinal cord, and he falls to the ground with a scream that could rend them deaf._

“ _My judgement is perfectly fine.” Trugg mutters, stepping around Ladnok with ease. “You need to learn to take less shit.” Ladnok is rendered speechless._

It took a phoeb later for Ladnok to have the mental energy to end the relationship. Zarkon didn't hold Trugg to account. All he and the others did was encourage the behaviour.

It was why Ladnok was never given quintessence injections, but Haggar had her own methods to expand their lifespans.

“Lieutenant Herrah, raise our shields, charge the weapons, and get our fighters out there. She's likely going to go all in with an aggressive assault, so re-route power from the ion cannons across the fleets to the shields. We can't take multiple hits.” Ladnok orders, and as usual, Herrah works quickly. Trugg may have cut the visual feed, but Ladnok didn't need to look at her ex-mates face as they did this. Just because Ladnok wasn't as vicious as Trugg was, didn't mean she wasn't formidable. It seemed that her ex-mate had forgotten that fact.

As the fighters from both fleets empties from the ships' hangars, space around them lights up. Laser fire and explosions. Ladnok isn't going to let Trugg get whatever it is Ranveig has down there, but she needs something to help stake a claim on the board so to speak. If Sendak was still kicking about, then she _really_ needed something to use against him. Janka had his fleet, but he was also easy to work with being so political-minded. He knew his weakness, and Ladnok could use that in her favour. This was the difference between them both; Trugg now played hard and stupid. Long-gone were the quintants where she used fore-thought. Now she was just the same as everyone else who followed Zarkon blindly. Stupid.

“Move the Jaxca squadron to intercept their on-coming assault on our starboard-” Ladnok grits her teeth when someone shouts from below.

“Commander! All of Trugg's fleet is turning it's attention on...on... _no_!”

“No what?” She leans over her terminal, but it isn't her crew who answers.

“I see you're taking the defensive route in a surprise to _no one_. So, I thought, Laddy,” Trugg's patronising her over the comms, the absolute dreck, “let's test something. Haggar loved tests, and you loved testing my patience.”

“What in the name of the gods do you think you're doing?” Ladnok digs her nails into her palm to keep her temper in one piece, but it is fraying quickly at the seams.

“It's pretty easy to work out, Laddy. I'm going to fire our ion cannons at that ship on your port side, and so's the rest of my fleet. I ain't joking; I'm _taking_ that weapon.”

“You would kill your own people!?” Ladnok can't restrain her anger now. “We've just lost the Kral Zera to the Blade of Marmora and _Lotor_ \- Trugg, _stop_!” Ladnok can only look on in absolute horror as the ship on her port-side is assaulted by Trugg and her fleet. It's just in the back-drop, she can hear Trugg laughing, like this is a fucking _game_ to her.

“Get us out the vicinity. Re-route power back into the ion cannons, and fire on Trugg's ships.” If that's the case, Ladnok will attack with force herself, but she has to be careful now she's down a ship.

“Commander!” Herrah calls, and there's panic in his voice.

“What now?” She snaps her head around.

“The power exchange will take time, but not only that, we need more time to charge it with what was put into the shields-”

“Switch off all non-essential systems! Will that give us more chance to charge? Trugg!” Ladnok snaps her head back to the visual she has on screen of the battlefield. “What is wrong with you?” There's a pause, a long one, before Ladnok hears that _cackle_ of a laugh she has. It's the type of laugh Ladnok knows, and has heard once. That was when she ended it, and Trugg swore to her she would regret the decision. Something drops like luxite in Ladnok's chest, and she's wondering for a tick whether this weapon is really worth it. She doesn't want her crew to die, but she's already lost some loyal to her, and now she's faced with someone with no restraint. It clicked too late; that this was exactly the reason why Trugg was offered that position so long ago with Zarkon. She didn't know how to restrain her strength, her tongue, her desires, and in addition, she was as stubborn as the Archivist. Ladnok looks down at her crew as that insane laughter continues. She can't turn tail and run, because she has no where to run too, especially if Trugg gets that weapon, and even then, they're out-numbered. The laughter stops, and as the coldness seeps through her body, she looks up.

“You know I know how you think. I thought you'd be dumb enough to order your fleet to pool the ship's energy into the shields. That was your first mistake. The second was under-estimating me.” There's a long, deathly silent pause, and as the fighters explode in front of them – Ladnok unable to tell who is friend or foe at this point – then she sees it. The ships are turning their attention to hers. “You think I care if I kill traitors? You think I care about those on your ships, those loyal to you? I don't. At all. I thought, you know, what if I captured you? But I decided that this was probably worse for you; knowing that you failed this badly. I told you: I would have that weapon. Besides, even if I never seen you again, and I know after this I won't, but even never is too soon.”

“I hope that weapon ends up being your downfall!” There's a sharp noise as the audio cuts, and Ladnok just stares at the ships, the brightening glow of the ion cannons.

“Put all power into the weaponry and lock on to her ship.” Ladnok says slowly, looking across her crew. She taps at her holo-screen, and stands to full attention. The air on the bridge is funereal, and even she feels it. There's no way out of this.

“Attention to all members of my fleet; this is a message to you all. What we're about to face is,” she swallows, “likely death. While the message of the Empire has always been victory or death, I will promise you all that, while our fate is a dire one, I'm proud of every single one of you.” She stands straighter, and brings her arm to her chest. “I want to thank you all for standing by me, and putting your faith in someone like myself. I am sorry that I've failed you, but there's one thing I can promise you; I won't go down without a fight, and I urge you to do the same. So,” she sucks in a sharp breath as the ion cannon is almost charged, and so are Truggs, “let's stand together on our final front, and for victory or death. Vrepit sa.” While there is no applause, or cheer, there is a shift in the air, if not by much. “Fire the ion cannon with everything we have at Trugg's ship. Let's do as much damage as we can.”

-

“ _Hah! I think this is the only thing I can beat you at!” Trugg grins at Ladnok as her simulated battle cruisers are destroyed. She punches the air in victory. Ladnok's cheeks puff out as she pouts, folding her arms across her chest._

“ _I only let you win. Let's go again!” Ladnok sets up the simulation again, and Trugg can't help but laugh at how stubborn and cute she's being._

“ _Okay, if you say so. I'll even let you go first.”_

“ _You don't have to give me a handicap!”_

“ _It's not a handicap, it's just to let you think more. My...father,” Trugg glances away, “taught me that it's easier to go with the flow of battle. If you think too much, you get carried away.”_

“ _Yeah, but what about everyone on board?”_

“ _I mean they're soldiers, right? They and we know what we're signing up for I guess.” Trugg shrugs her shoulders as she stares at what Ladnok's done. Her pupils quickly scan the holo-screen. She's done the same again; raised the shields but not primed her weapons. Trugg clicks her tongue. “You're really predictable! If we're ever going to make it to commander, then you gotta think smarter. See? You raised shields to the front of the ship, but you've left yourself open to flanking. So if I release my fighters, they can swarm the sides of your ships and attack your engines.” Trugg swipes her commands in, and the simulation runs. Ladnok groans, falling back into the plush pillows that decorate her room. “Oh come on, you haven't lost yet.”_

“ _But it's so annoying! This is the fourth simulation and I don't get it. Can you...” Ladnok sits back up, “help me?” Trugg blinks, because she rarely asks for help at all._

“ _Y-Yeah, sure!” Trugg shuffles over to sit beside Ladnok. They're going to make it one quintant, and they're always going to help and be there for each other._

The memory will be remembered in bitter fondness as Trugg watches Ladnok's battle cruiser explode. She feels nothing as the explosions rock her ship, except that she's attained victory. Little now remains of Ladnok's fleet, and even as they fire with everything they have, Trugg has them out-classed.

“Issue and order across our fleet to destroy them. Turn all remaining fighters on the smallest ship. It will have the weakest shields. I'm going to find a shuttle, and claim my prize. Await for instruction.” She turns on her heel, and with a grin, heads towards the shuttle bay.

“Commander! One of the ships is on a collision course!”

“Then,” she stops mid-step, “blow it to space dust.” With that, she continues. If she loses the flagship, it's a pain, but no loss.

-

If she was still working for Zarkon, Trugg would've taken the two Marmoran traitors back to Central Command. Maybe torture the small half-breed on the way, or the mother. Both, probably. She didn't know, or care, about them right now, but she had the codes. As she waits for the doors to open, Trugg wonders what Ranveig has built. He was one for destruction, so Trugg's expectation was something like a cannon – like a better version of the zaiforges, but judging by the size of the base, perhaps it was something smaller? Maybe it was something like a new engine system? Her thoughts were cut, however, when she hears a strange noise. She snaps her head to the guard, who looks like he's seen a ghost. Her head whips back around and then it comes. It's something between a wail, growl, and screech.

“W-What?” Trugg stumbles back a step, arms raise defensively, as she hears _footsteps_. They're heavy, and then she sees something reflect back in the light. Her eyes widen, but in that time, the thing's in front of her, towering over her form, and that is the last thing she sees as it's great maw comes down, dwarfing her entire world in darkness. In the micro-ticks before death, Trugg wonders if Ladnok was one step ahead of her, and _knew_ this was her fate. If the gods could hear her, Trugg prayed she wouldn't see Ladnok's face again.

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be back tomorrow with the final installation of Galra week, but thanks for reading!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, and drop a comment below :3


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